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Author Archive | Alex Kamody

The Re-Imagined Score: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by Duo Unprepared

Watch Trailer Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writer(s): Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey firmly stands in the pantheon of cinema partly due to its mystery, its spectacle, and its iconic soundtrack. But did you know that before he settled on well-known orchestral pieces that are now part of film history, Kubrick left a finished original score for the nearly three-hour epic on the cutting room floor? It begs the question: what would the experience of 2001 be like with an entirely different sound? Duo Unprepared offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to answer that question with a live, improvised performance set to an all-time classic film this December…

“I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — Hal 9000

With 2001: A Space Odyssey, director Stanley Kubrick redefined the limits of filmmaking in this classic science fiction masterpiece; a contemplation on the nature of humanity.

2001: A Space Odyssey spans from the dawn of man to its title year. Stone Age Earth: In the presence of a mysterious black obelisk, pre-humans discover the use of tools — and weapons — violently taking first steps toward intelligence. 1999: On Earth’s moon astronauts uncover another mysterious black obelisk. 2001: Between Earth and Jupiter, the spacecraft’s intelligent computer makes a mistake that kills most of the human crew — then continues to kill to hide its error. Beyond Time: The sole survivor of the journey to Jupiter ascends to the next level of humanity.

Based on the short story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey showed the way for all other special effects-laden films that followed.

This event will feature an intermission.

About Duo Unprepared

Roger Braun (percussion) and Andre Gribou (pianos) have worked together in a wide variety of performance settings since 2000. While this includes completely improvised music – where they found they had an unusual chemistry – they also perform frequently together in classical, jazz, and world music settings. As their affinity for performing improvised music together grew they began to collaborate with other artists including world-renown improvisational dancers, Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser. Braun and Gribou have appeared on numerous concert series including Washington D.C.’s Dance Place performance series, the University of Michigan, Ohio University, and Denison University. With frequent collaborator, percussionist, Anthony Di Sanza, they recently performed in Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland at the 2015 International Society for Improvised Music Conference and a tour of Wisconsin Universities.

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Running Time: 150 min150 MIN
G Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

It is an extraordinary, obsessive, beautiful work of art.

Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
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Sponsored by OU Performing Arts

FREE SOLO: Last Day November 22nd

Watch Trailer Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi (“MERU”) and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes National Geographic Documentary Film’s FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock… the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park… without a rope. Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge, Honnold enters his story in the annals of human achievement. FREE SOLO is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human physical and mental potential. The result is a triumph of the human spirit.

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Running Time: 97 min97 MIN
PG-13 Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Go figure that the year's most outrageously harrowing action movie turns out to be an arthouse doc from National Geographic.

Tom Russo
Boston Globe
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INJECTION AND OUTRAGE

Director: Winter Rey Wilson

An Athens County mother-turned-activist is the subject of this new documentary produced by Ohio University student Winter Rey Wilson about the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing. “I grew up in Athens learning about a lot of very important environmental justice issues happening in my own community,” Wilson says in a press release, “injection well waste being one that’s especially prevalent.” Wilson’s influences for this documentary include Josh Fox (Gasland) and Errol Morris (Vernon, Florida).

Injection and Outrage is a 15-minute look at one woman’s fight against injection wells in her community as she strives to protect her own land and that of her mother’s. Admission is free and will include a Q&A with Wilson after the screening.

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Running Time: 15 min15 MIN
Not Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Journalism is about finding good stories. Often, the people with the best stories are the ones who live and work among us. Winter has found several of them for this film.

Nerissa Young
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
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THE OLD MAN & THE GUN: Last Day Thursday, November 8th

Watch Trailer Director: David Lowery
Cast: Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover

OLD MAN AND THE GUN is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession.

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PG-13 Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

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Holiday Film Series: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION

Watch Trailer Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Writer(s): John Hughes
Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis

Part of the 7th annual Holiday Film Series & Canned Food Drive! Special evening shows!

The third in the “National Lampoon” series about the Griswold family. In this sequel, the Griswolds must deal with a holiday with their in-laws.

***Support Athens Food Pantries***

***Celebrate the holidays with loved ones***

***Enjoy the nostalgia of classic films on the big screen***

***Admission is non-perishable food or cash donation***

***Free Snowflake Cookies***

Sponsored by Ohio University’s Department of Real Estate Management, Community Engagement and Economic Development.

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Running Time: 97 minutes97 MIN
PG-13 Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Solid family fare with plenty of yocks.

Variety
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BLINDSPOTTING: Last Day Thursday, October 25th

Watch Trailer Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada
Cast: Deveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar

Collin (Daveed Diggs) must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend, Miles (Rafael Casal), work as movers, and when Collin witnesses a police shooting, the two men’s friendship is tested as they grapple with identity and their changed realities in the rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood they grew up in. Longtime friends and collaborators, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal co-wrote and star in this timely and wildly entertaining story about friendship and the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of Oakland. Bursting with energy, style, and humor, and infused with the spirit of rap, hip hop, and spoken word, Blindspotting, boldly directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada in his feature film debut, is a provocative hometown love letter that glistens with humanity.

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Running Time: 95 minutes95 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Racism, gentrification, police brutality, start-up culture, corporate branding, social media, the justice system ... Blindspotting is eager to take them all on with style and wit, and it succeeds more often than not.

Barry Hertz
Globe and Mail
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OHIO First Scholars Present HOME ALONE

Watch Trailer Director: Chris Columbus
Writer(s): John Hughes
Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern

Home Alone is the highly successful and beloved family comedy about a young boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family takes off for a vacation in France over the holiday season. Once he realizes they’ve left him “home alone,” he learns to fend for himself and, eventually has to protect his house against two bumbling burglars (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) who are planning to rob every house in Kevin’s suburban Chicago neighborhood.

Free admission presented by OHIO First Scholars

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Running Time: 103 min103 MIN
PG Rated
This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Hughes creates characters that are immediately recognizable and immediately likable.

David Kehr
Chicago Tribune
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COLETTE: Last Day Thursday, November 1st

Watch Trailer Director: Wash Westmoreland
Cast: Keira Knightley, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough

After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as “Willy” (Dominic West), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette’s fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionizing literature, fashion and sexual expression. Directed by Wash Westmoreland and written by Wash Westmoreland, Richard Glatzer, Rebecca Lenkiewicz.

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Running Time: 111 minutes111 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. Listening Aids are available for this film. Descriptive Aids are available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

As a period film that's more than ready for 2018, Colette embodies the power of thinking forward in more ways than one.

Nick Allen
RogerEbert.com
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TEA WITH THE DAMES: Last Day Thursday, November 1st

Watch Trailer Director: Roger Michell

What happens when four legends of British stage and screen get together? Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins, and Dame Joan Plowright are among the most celebrated actresses of our time, with scores of iconic performances, decades of wisdom, and innumerable Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and BAFTAs between them. They are also longtime friends who hereby invite you to join them for a weekend in the country as they catch up with one another, reminisce, and share their candid, delightfully irreverent thoughts on everything from art to aging to love to a life lived in the spotlight. Bursting with devilish wit and whip-smart insights, Tea With The Dames is a remarkable opportunity to spend time in the company of four all-time greats–up close and unfiltered.

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Running Time: 94 minutes94 MIN
Not Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Call it a gabfest. Label it a talkathon. But Tea with the Dames, directed by Roger Michell, is so much more.

Rex Reed
Observer
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BLAZE: Last Day Thursday, October 18th

Watch Trailer Director: Ethan Hawke
Cast: Benjamin Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton

BLAZE is inspired by the life of Blaze Foley, the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas outlaw music movement that spawned the likes of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. The film weaves together three different periods of time, braiding re-imagined versions of Blaze’s past, present and future. The different strands explore his love affair with Sybil Rosen; his last, dark night on earth; and the impact of his songs and his death had on his fans, friends, and foes. The braided storyline terminates in a bittersweet ending that acknowledges Blaze’s profound highs and lows, as well as the impressions he made on the people who shared his journey.

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Running Time: 127 minutes127 MIN
R Rated
Closed Captioning is available for this film. Open Captioning is available for this film. This Film is Wheelchair Accessible

Director Ethan Hawke turns the story of hard-livin' troubadour Blaze Foley into a tribute to artistic integrity - and the best music biopic of the year.

Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
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